Divorce yourself from the knowledge that this is a Tim Burton film, and the fact that the eminently likable Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara provide voices, and you might discover that Frankenweenie isn’t anything special. Updated from Burton’s 1984 lo-hi live-action short film as a stop-motion 3-D cartoon, Frankenweenie is a retelling of the Frankenstein story with cuddlier characters—a boy scientist and his dog. But the stop-motion is really subpar; there isn’t much style to speak of; and the story doesn’t need the animated treatment to be effective. In fact, it could be argued that this would be a far more relatable movie if Burton had just made it as a live-action film, living somewhere between his original and the Addams Family movies, maybe.
ByColin Boyd